Patents by Inventor William Pfeifer, JR.

William Pfeifer, JR. has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Providing user-specific malware assessment based on social interactions
    Patent number: 9225739
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to determining a risk of encountering malware based on social context, to determining malware threats based on social associations and to ranking antimalware programs according to the program's ability to protect against specific threats. In one scenario, a computer system receives a malware notification associated with a user that identifies a type of malware encountered by the user. The computer system identifies various persons that are part of a social group associated with the user and determines that at least one of the identified persons associated with the user has an increased likelihood of encountering the identified type of malware, based on information derived from identifying the persons that are part of the social group. Optionally, the computer system notifies the identified persons of the increased likelihood of encountering the identified type of malware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: William Pfeifer, Jr., Nitin Sood, Joseph Carl Nelson Blackbird
  • PROVIDING USER-SPECIFIC MALWARE ASSESSMENT BASED ON SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
    Publication number: 20150007331
    Abstract: Embodiments are directed to determining a risk of encountering malware based on social context, to determining malware threats based on social associations and to ranking antimalware programs according to the program's ability to protect against specific threats. In one scenario, a computer system receives a malware notification associated with a user that identifies a type of malware encountered by the user. The computer system identifies various persons that are part of a social group associated with the user and determines that at least one of the identified persons associated with the user has an increased likelihood of encountering the identified type of malware, based on information derived from identifying the persons that are part of the social group. Optionally, the computer system notifies the identified persons of the increased likelihood of encountering the identified type of malware.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2013
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventors: William Pfeifer, JR., Nitin Sood, Joseph Carl Nelson Blackbird